Haven Monsters!

This Halloween at Haven we’ve teamed up with Plasticine to create our own Haven Monsters and this got us thinking about some of the Monsters that might live near our parks – so let’s get our teeth stuck in…

Some of the earliest sightings of a creature being in the Loch came as early as the 6th and 7th centuries, where locals had been attacked and dragged under by a ‘water beast’.

The first description of the creature being a monster came in 1933; journalist Alex Campbell described seeing a creature below the waters of the loch as “the nearest approach to a dragon or pre-historic animal that I have ever seen in my life.” Since then the word spread fast and it has turned into the fantastic mythic monster that we all know today!

There have been some crazy explanations thrown around to explain away the Loch Ness Monster, for example, there is a suggestion that a sighting of the monster was in fact the trunk of an elephant that was swimming in the Loch (see image below)! The idea that it could be a giant eel is far more plausible, especially as they are common place in highland waters! How about you? Do you think this is all myth or is there more to the story than just an elephant’s trunk?

At the seaside retreat of Whitby, in Yorkshire, we find a spooktacular account of Dracula! Bram Stokers tale is one that explains Draculas desire to move to England, in particular Whitby, so he could spread the curse of the undead throughout Britain. The story is so famous that you can take a journey through the streets of Whitby on any number of Dracula tours and ghostly walks!

The tale also mentions a ship called the Demeter that ran aground at Whitby Harbour, when the ship was searched they found all the crew were dead. A man spotted a huge black dog jump ashore and run up the 199 steps towards Whitby abbey. The dog was known to be one of the many forms into which a vampire could transform itself.

You can still walk these steps today, would you be ready to take on the terrifying trip to the top?

This might be a lesser known Halloween monster but it is definitely just as scary as the rest! Back in February 2013 a mysterious beast washed on Tenby’s South Beach, the man who found the beast said, “Immediately I thought it was a horse but it had claws like a bear and a body of a pig. Surprisingly it didn’t smell.” Many people described it as a creature that would come out of your worst nightmares!

It has been noted that the beast doesn’t look like something that would naturally live in the water as it has tusks and claws. Some say that it may be related to a creature that washed up in the Hamptons near New York in 2008, but no-one can be sure!